As the Rural Alliance continues to increase its partnerships and collaborative projects, it is clear that the current single district superintendent process for managing activities, meetings, and partnerships is untenable. While the Rural Alliance has started to explore governance options, it is also clear that there is a fine line/tension between maintaining the current informal and collegial relationships that have built and sustained the Rural Alliance and the development of a governance structure with dedicated staff to manage the Rural Alliance. Above all, Rural Alliance partners seek to maintain “ownership” of the Rural Alliance, sustain its strong relationships, nurture the values that built the Rural Alliance, and maintain the unique characteristics of the Rural Alliance. The Rural Alliance is a grassroots organization. The Rural Alliance seeks to establish dedicated staff to increase effectiveness and efficiency and expand opportunities.

StrategicPlanning Process Overview

The Rural Alliance for College Success first convened in July 2010 in Spokane. The motivation for bringing small, isolated rural districts together was to make sure geography did not determine our students' postsecondary opportunities.

Realizing that many entities are focused on giving all children a good future, the 35 founding districts invited community colleges, universities, and a diversity of nonprofit organizations to combine efforts with us.

Together we defined priorities and designed solutions to the obstacles rural students face in accessing equitable college and career access. The projects we initiated include strengthening academic readiness in the core curriculum, increasing 21st century skills through social and emotional learning, and deepening engagement through personalized learning and improved guidance.

Together, we built a sense of collegiality that has drawn new members into the Rural Alliance. Today we represent 79 districts, 46,000 students, 15 colleges and universities, and nonprofits engaged in a continuum of services from early birth to adulthood.

In June of 2016, with the shared leadership of several rural district superintendents, the Mary Walker School District, initiated a strategic planning process for the Rural Alliance. A small number of district superintendents met over the course of several Sunday evening and Monday morning meetings, for six months.

This team of eastern Washington rural school district superintendents developed the strategies, milestones, deliverables, logic model, and process to obtain stakeholder feedback. The present work on this strategic plan is born of our sense of the Rural Alliance's potential to persist and reduce gaps in achievement and opportunity. We seek a delineated plan that sets a course for capacity building and work that maintains its energetic and inclusive grassroots nature.

The Rural Alliance will continue to engage in projects and activities that serve and advocate for rural students, districts, and communities in ways that ensure the Rural Alliance's vision of, Success for every rural student, family, and community is realized.

Strategy 1: Continue to develop a collective voice for the Rural Alliance

Summary

The Rural Alliance is a grassroots collaboration of rural school districts, community colleges, universities, and other partners committed to ensure success for every rural student, family, and community. This strategy seeks to demonstrate how the Rural Alliance will build capacity in the collective voice of rural school districts.

Major Milestones/Deliverables

Build recognition for the skills, knowledge, and disposition of rural students, families, communities, and school and district staff.

Deliverable: Develop effective strategies and practices to communicate the Rural Alliance mission, vision, strategies and projects in support of rural students and districts. (Tell our own story) (Spring/summer 2017)

The capacity of any organization or group is in large part impacted by its human capital. Human capital is represented not just by the number of people in an organization but also by the skills, knowledge, and dispositions that each of those individuals bring to the work or task at hand. The Rural Alliance will work to increase individual and collective capacity via professional growth and job satisfaction opportunities. The Rural Alliance also seeks to increase and diversify the already strong human capital found in its partners. Sustaining strong human capital is essential to ensuring opportunities and success for rural students and their communities.

Note:For all deliverables, an asterisk (*) denotes a potential new projects.

Major Milestones/Deliverables

Increase Rural Alliance partnerships with and participation of other entities with similar or complementary missions and interest to serve rural students and communities.

Establish venues and networking opportunities for rural superintendents to dialogue around rural successes, issues, and challenges

Crisis calling and go to colleagues for various topical issues

Deliverable: While recognizing the many areas of expertise that rural superintendents bring to their districts, advocate for, support, and establish mechanisms to assist in balancing the many hats rural superintendents wear.

The Rural Alliance intends to sustain its strong focus and demonstrated effectiveness on its projects and activities. The Rural Alliance will sustain these innovative, effective and high quality projects. The Rural Alliance will expand to other needed projects and support the hands-on approach demonstrated by its partner school district superintendents.

Note: All deliverable targets for this strategy are fund source and project specific. Additionally,for all deliverables, an asterisk (*) denotes a potential new projects.

Major Milestones/ Deliverables

Increase student engagement and maintain high academic standards and improved student achievement for all rural students P–16.

Deliverable: Increase the number of rural students who have access to personalized learning by sustaining and increasing the number of districts participating in the Summit Basecamp.

A strength of the Rural Alliance is the longstanding strong social capital that exists across the rural school districts and its partners. Social capital is the “connections among individuals - social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from” those connections and relationships. These networks, connections, individual and collective motivations, and collaborations that are social capital are essential assets to building and sustaining strong communities. On behalf of rural partners, the Rural Alliance seeks to continue to invest in, diversify and sustain its partnerships.

Major Milestones/Deliverables

Create a Rural Alliance culture where students, parents, staff and administrators can be successful.

Explore opportunities to create other post-secondary partnerships and collaborative projects.

Partner with other entities with similar or complementary missions to serve rural students and communities (i.e. health care, early learning, etc.)

Strategy 5:Build an innovative structure to develop organizational capacity in the Rural Alliance

Summary

As the Rural Alliance continues to increase its partnerships and collaborative projects, it is clear that the current single district superintendent process for managing activities, meetings, and partnerships is untenable. While the Rural Alliance has started to explore governance options, it is also clear that there is a fine line/tension between maintaining the current informal and collegial relationships that have built and sustained the Rural Alliance and the development of a governance structure with dedicated staff to manage the Rural Alliance. Above all, Rural Alliance partners seek to maintain “ownership” of the Rural Alliance, sustain its strong relationships, nurture the values that built the Rural Alliance, and maintain the unique characteristics of the Rural Alliance. The Rural Alliance is a grassroots organization. The Rural Alliance seeks to establish dedicated staff to increase effectiveness and efficiency and expand opportunities.

Note: For all deliverables, an asterisk (*) denotes a potential new projects.

Major Milestones/Deliverables

Develop a governance structure that responds to the unique characteristics of the Rural Alliance.